Book of Ecclesiastes

Summary of the Book of Ecclesiastes

This summary of the book of Ecclesiastes provides information about the title, author(s), date of writing, chronology, theme,
theology, outline, a brief overview, and the chapters of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Author and Date

No time period or writer's name is mentioned in the book, but several passages
suggest that King Solomon may be the author (1:1,12,16; 2:4-9; 7:26-29; 12:9;
cf. 1Ki 2:9; 3:12; 4:29-34; 5:12; 10:1-8). On the other hand, the writer's
title ("Teacher," Hebrew qoheleth; see note on 1:1), his unique style of Hebrew
and his attitude toward rulers (suggesting that of a subject rather than a
monarch -- see, e.g., 4:1-2; 5:8-9; 8:2-4; 10:20) may point to another person
and a later period (see note on 1:1).

Purpose and Teaching

The author of Ecclesiastes puts his powers of wisdom to work to examine
the human experience and assess the human situation. His perspective is limited
to what happens "under the sun" (as is that of all the wisdom teachers). He
considers life as he has experienced and observed it between the horizons of
birth and death -- life within the boundaries of this visible world. His wisdom
cannot penetrate beyond that last horizon; he can only observe the phenomenon
of death and perceive the limits it places on human beings. Within the limits
of human experience and observation, he is concerned to spell out what is "good"
for people to do. And he represents a devout wisdom. Life in the world is under
God -- for all its enigmas. Hence what begins with "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
(1:2) ends with "Remember your Creator" (12:1) and "Fear God and keep his commandments" (12:13).

With a wisdom matured by many years, he takes the measure of human beings,
examining their limits and their lot. He has attempted to see what human wisdom
can do (1:13,16-18; 7:24; 8:16), and he has discovered that human wisdom, even
when it has its beginning in "the fear of the Lord" (Pr 1:7), has limits to
its powers when it attempts to go it alone -- limits that circumscribe its perspectives
and relativize its counsel. Most significantly, it cannot find out the larger
purposes of God or the ultimate meaning of human existence. With respect to
these it can only pose questions.

Nevertheless, he does take a hard look at the human enterprise -- an enterprise
in which he himself has fully participated. He sees a busy, busy human ant
hill in mad pursuit of many things, trying now this, now that, laboring away
as if by dint of effort humans could master the world, lay bare its deepest
secrets, change its fundamental structures, somehow burst through the bounds
of human limitations, build for themselves enduring monuments, control their
destiny, achieve a state of secure and lasting happiness -- people laboring at
life with an overblown conception of human powers and consequently pursuing
unrealistic hopes and aspirations.
He takes a hard look and concludes that human life in this mode is "meaningless,"
its efforts all futile.

What, then, does wisdom teach him?

Humans cannot by all their striving achieve anything of ultimate or enduring
significance. Nothing appears to be going anywhere (1:5-11), and people
cannot by all their efforts break out of this caged treadmill (1:2-4;2:1-11);
they cannot fundamentally change anything (1:12-15;6:10;7:13). Hence
they often toil foolishly (4:4,7-8;5:10-17;6:7-9). All their striving
"under the sun" (1:3) after unreal goals leads only to disillusionment.

Experience confronts humans with many apparent disharmonies and anomalies
that wisdom cannot unravel. Of these the greatest of all is this: Human
life comes to the same end as that of the animals -- death (2:15; 3:16-17; 7:15; 8:14; 9:1-3; 10:5-7).

Although God made humankind upright, people have gone in search of many
"schemes" (for getting ahead by taking advantage of others; see 7:29; cf.
Ps 10:2; 36:4; 140:2). So even humans are a disappointment (7:24-29).

People cannot know or control what will come after them, or even what
lies in the more immediate future; therefore all their efforts remain balanced
on the razor's edge of uncertainty (2:18;6:12;7:14;9:2).

God has ordered all things (3:1-15;5:19;6:1-6;9:1), and a human being
cannot change God's appointments or fully understand them or anticipate
them (3:1;7;11:1-6). But the world is not fundamentally chaotic or irrational.
It is ordered by God, and it is for humans to accept matters as they are
by God's appointments, including their own limitations. Everything has
its "time" and is good in its time (ch. 3).

Therefore wisdom counsels:

Accept the human state as it is shaped by God's appointments and enjoy
the life you have been given as fully as you can.

"Fear God and keep his commandments" (12:13), beginning already in your
youth before the fleeting days of life's enjoyments are gone and "the days
of trouble" (12:1) come when the infirmities of advanced age vex you and
hinder you from tasting, seeing and feeling the good things of life.

To sum up, Ecclesiastes provides instruction on how to live meaningfully,
purposefully and joyfully within the theocratic arrangement -- primarily by placing
God at the center of one's life, work and activities, by contentedly accepting
one's divinely appointed lot in life, and by reverently trusting in and obeying
the Creator-King. Note particularly 2:24-26; 3:11-14,22; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10;
11:7 -- 12:1; 12:9-14 (see also any pertinent notes on these passages).

Literary Features

The argument of Ecclesiastes does not flow smoothly. It meanders, with jumps
and starts, through the general messiness of human experience, to which it
is a response. There is also an intermingling of poetry and prose. Nevertheless,
the following outline seeks to reflect, at least in a general way, the structure
of the book and its main discourses. The announced theme of "meaninglessness"
(futility) provides a literary frame around the whole (1:2;12:8). And the
movement from the unrelieved disillusionment of chs. 1 - 2 to the more serene
tone and sober instructions for life in chs. 11 - 12 marks a development in matured
wisdom's coming to terms with the human situation.